A New Motyka Addition

Madelyn Paige Motyka has finally graced us with her presence!

Madelyn was born on December 31, 2008 at 2:59 AM. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 0 ozs. and is 18.5 inches long. Baby Maddie and mom are both doing well despite mom enduring an epidural-free labor! Baby Maddie just wanted to come see us far too quickly. We are so excited to have this new addition to our family after the holidays! Alex is a great big brother and has already fallen in love with his baby sister.

Lots of new pictures will be posted soon. Keep checking back!

Merry Christmas from the Motyka family!

The night before Christmas in our house...Alex & Mommy made pumpkin pie and cookies for Santa. We watched The Polar Express while having cookies and hot chocolate. Then, we read "The Night Before Christmas" for our bedtime storytime. A wonderful night before Christmas.


Christmas morning was full of presents, family, and lots of fun! As you can see, we (mostly Alex & even Maddie) were blessed with lots of gifts under the tree this year. Shawn's gift wouldn't fit under the tree this year...a 50" flat screen plasma t.v. How did he ever talk Alicia into this we'll never know. (Future note: don't let Shawn make a huge purchase while Alicia is 9 months pregnant). Alex loved opening all his gifts and kept saying, "Can I open another one? This one has my name on it...A-L-E-X." He had so many that it took us over 2 hours to open all the gifts from family, friends, and of course, Santa. The stockings still haven't been touched. That will be another project for after Christmas dinner. As you can see, Alex was so excited to get ALOT more Cars toys for Christmas among many other toys! He even got a Cars' sleeping bag, pillows, and many Cars' MegaBlocks to build a whole Cars' city. Our house has been taken over by Alex's obsession: Cars!
We hope this post finds everyone enjoying the holiday season and enjoying time with family and friends. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Our Surprise with Santa

Much to our surprise this year, Alex actually sat on Santa's lap and talked to him at length about EVERYTHING he wants for Christmas. For the past 2 years, we've had nothing but huge tears and a screaming kid. He even told us this morning that he wanted to see Santa, but from afar. We went to Shawn's work for Breakfast with Santa which is much cheaper & faster than going to the mall for a visit with Santa. Breakfast was okay. Crafts were brought home to do during our long 2-week vacation. Balloon animals were a hit, especially since Alex wanted a shark hat & ran around chasing his friend, Trinity with it. Of course, all Shawn & I could think about it was "fins to the left, fins to the right." Thank you Jimmy Buffett. And last of all, Santa & Mrs. Claus were a huge hit & exciting time for us as parents. We are so proud of his change in behavior and how much he is becoming a "big boy" every day.

Waiting for Our Angel Update

This week has been rough for Alicia. On Tuesday night, she experienced many symptoms of early labor and thought for sure that they would be headed to the hospital by Wednesday morning. She was so worried about things not being done at the house that she finally got out of bed and began to clean and organize parts of the house. Knowing that guests would be coming to the house to take care of Alex, she wanted to make sure that things were cleaned up and put away. So after an hour or so, she finally tried to go back to bed. Our little angel had other plans for her though since Alicia spent another hour awake with contractions, back aches, and many other uncomfortable symptoms. Finally, sleep found her around 4am (thank goodness) and before she knew it, it was 7am and time to start the day. She finally told Shawn what he had missed out on all night long. Why have another individual not get any sleep all night? On top of all the nesting she did throughout the night, she also had many worries: would they be ready for this little angel tonight/the next day (Shawn still hadn't packed his bag or any snacks for the hospital)? How would they get the van from the Honda dealership before coming home from the hospital (BTW the infant car seat was already in the van but it wasn't at home)? The van is equipped with many computerized wonders, including a Tire Pressure Monitoring System which lets you know when the tire pressure is low. Great invention until it continues to stay on when it's not supposed to. So the Honda dealership had ordered a new part & was going to install it on Wednesday. What a pain! Of course, it wasn't even ready or guaranteed to be fixed until after 5pm on Wednesday. Didn't Alicia have enough to worry about for the day?

To say the least, Wednesday was a very rough day for Alicia. Lack of sleep (only 3 hours), continued early labor symptoms (although fewer and less intense), and having to take Alex to and from preschool. Finally, Alex was picked up from preschool (one less worry if she went into labor while he was in school) and Alicia could relax more at home. Sleep finally found her during Alex's nap and finally some rest and relaxation had helped! Wednesday night found us finishing our Christmas letter/cards (one less thing for Alicia to worry about) and making sure Shawn had his bag packed. And of course, Alicia & Shawn thought going to the hospital during the night was a possibility. Fortunately, lots of sleep and less early labor symptoms found Alicia during the night and she finally FEELS more rested. Still exhausted and ready for this little one to join our family, but happy to have gotten some rest.

Now it's Thursday and it seems to be a normal day for Alex & Alicia at home and Shawn at work. Later, we'll join Shawn at BASF for a baby shower and then, some holiday shopping at the mall. (Maybe walking around will help this little one want to join us sooner.)

We'll keep you updated on any improvements! Until then, enjoy this holiday season and find the time to appreciate all the little blessings we have in our lives! Happy Holidays!